Young Africans, Fix Your Own Inequality by Javnyuy Joybert
Rise up and fix your own inequality, especially if you think you are at a disadvantage as far as life is concerned.
A research on the network gap by WEF, shows that living in a high-income neighbourhood, going to a top school and working at a top company can lead to a 12x advantage in accessing opportunities. This means that two people with the exact same skills, but who were born into different neighbourhoods, may be worlds apart when it comes to the opportunities afforded them.
In basic terms, if you live in neighborhoods or hang out just with Average people, lower and middle level class of people there are some opportunities in this life you will never access.
For example, the kind of people you can meet taking breakfast by a roadside cafe under an old umbrella, and the kind of people you meet taking breakfast in a standard restaurant or hotel restaurant can never be the same.
The kind of #school mates, someone has access to schooling in Harvard or any other Elite school cannot be the same like the school mates some people will have access to attending schools in Bonaberi.
One time, I challenged one of my mentees to go get lunch at La Failaise Hotel and asked him to make sure he doesn’t sit on a table alone like a native doctor. I asked him to dress well, get some food and be ready to connect and drive intelligent conversations. After he did it once, the kind of people he connected with, he started doing it once a month.
The truth is, although he lives in a low income neighbourhood, his access to some opportunities have been upgraded. The kind of results he handles now as a result of access is incredible.
There are some things as young Africans who are at the disadvantage, if we do not rise up and do, we will never be part of the real world. Stop sitting and feeling the world will understand because you were born poor. No, the world will never understand, the world will only understand you when you do what is required. The standard is very clear. When I understood this, my life changed.
The only way you can experience a better life than your parents, is to have access to better opportunities than they did. Be in the room where opportunities are created and distributed. Truth is, your government may not do that or if they do, it will be late and you will be 70 years old. So rise up.
Looking at all economies and average income levels, those children who are born into less affluent families typically experience greater barriers to success than their more affluently born counterparts. Whether you like it or not, your fight is different.
One of the biggest gifts to the poor is technology. With technology, an underdog, a poor child from a deep village who can successfully get to town and can have access to a smart phone, internet with the right mindset to harness this power can enter the global stage with the right dedication. I have seen it happen.
The sad thing is many are unprepared to take advantage of new opportunities. They ok with gossips and chit chatting about entertainment, nude pictures, gambling etc.
Young people, be careful, if not you will live the same lifestyle your parents lived 20 to 30 years ago and expecting different results. Be careful, you may end up fighting the same battles they fought with the same strategy and had mediocre results.
We need to flip our thinking, accept that we are the underdogs, stop blaming and complaining and believing there’s a machinery, government somewhere who really cares about you and start doing your part. Rise, the underdog goes up against all odds, stumble, only to come back stronger to win in the end.
You are in a third world country, but it doesn’t mean you should end up with a third world mentality. You were born in a disadvantaged background it doesn’t mean you should remain with a disadvantage brain.
Cheers
Javnyuy Joybert
Mr. Remarkable
www.javnyuyjoybert.com